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Cisco MDS Series vs Dell PowerStore comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jun 29, 2025

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

Cisco MDS Series
Ranking in Enterprise SAN
4th
Average Rating
9.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
9
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Dell PowerStore
Ranking in Enterprise SAN
1st
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
175
Ranking in other categories
Data Warehouse (4th), NAS (1st), All-Flash Storage (1st), NVMe All-Flash Storage Arrays (1st)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2026, in the Enterprise SAN category, the mindshare of Cisco MDS Series is 6.7%, down from 9.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Dell PowerStore is 23.3%, down from 29.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Enterprise SAN Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Dell PowerStore23.3%
Cisco MDS Series6.7%
Other70.0%
Enterprise SAN
 

Featured Reviews

OğuzKalaycı - PeerSpot reviewer
system engineer at Yaşar Holding
Ensures consistent availability during updates and integrates seamlessly
I am using Cisco MDS in SAN environments for storage connections and server connections The product is very stable and performs well. During the update periods, the devices do not need to reload, ensuring constant availability. It is easy to set up and use. I do not have a central management…
reviewer2304864 - PeerSpot reviewer
Vmware Windows Senior Engineer at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
Resilience has supported proactive management and secured audit readiness across multiple sites
The resilience in Dell PowerStore benefits my company from an auditing perspective because we know we have that resilience in place. I see Dell PowerStore playing a bigger role in the future because we are starting to use it more, and that is pushing it. The biggest return on investment for me when using Dell PowerStore is scalability. Scalability is key. I can amplify that scalability is the biggest return on investment because we have redundancy between two sites; if something goes down, we have to manage it, but we want to do it proactively.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"The features I found most valuable are the ease of deployment, it's easy to upgrade, easy to configure and easy to administer. There is no need for vendor professional services which saves project cost. The usage of WebUI for all primary features like hostname, IP address, SNMP traps, zone sets, addition and deletion of zone members or zone sets, backup of switch DB is very simple."
"The most valuable feature of the Cisco MDS Series is its reliability, support, and scalability."
"The product is easy to use."
"This solution is required for any type of IT infrastructure for Storage Networking and provides high availability for storage service."
"The most valuable features of this solution are the devices, databases, and zoning."
"The most valuable feature of the Cisco MDS Series is security."
"The most valuable features of this solution are the devices, databases, and zoning."
"It enables us to integrate and load balance between multiple layer one fiber vendor links, which is very useful."
"I rate Dell PowerStore a perfect 10 out of 10."
"The best features of Dell PowerStore include the effective capacity, which I believe is its strongest feature, and the dynamic RAID of disks."
"Dell PowerStore is an easy and fast tool to work through our company's data."
"The biggest improvement we found when moving into Dell PowerStore was the deduplication and compression."
"Typically, high-performance and high-availability features, such as application snapshots and remote and local replication, are highly valued."
"The most valuable feature is the functionality of the integration between the storage and the domain."
"It is a stable solution."
"The most valuable feature is the unwavering performance."
 

Cons

"I find it difficult to operate and troubleshoot."
"It is quite a stable product. It should be shipped with the latest firmware to avoid download and upload schema at the beginning of the initial setup. There should also be the possibility of downgrading the firmware when required. WebUI needs DCNM instead a web-based GUI should be made available like Brocade san switch."
"The licensing model could be less complicated."
"The solution's management interface and GUI need improvement."
"I do not have a central management software to manage these products due to the licensing cost."
"The licensing model could be less complicated."
"Cisco MDS Series could improve by adding more gigahertz. However, they are doing this over time."
"The product is very expensive."
"Some areas of Dell PowerStore that could be improved include reporting features, such as performance reports, which are lacking compared to VMAX and PowerMax."
"We are looking for the Dell PowerStore to become more mature to maximize our use cases."
"The solution only does thin provisioning."
"Customer service is good, though if you are running into some issues where you have to chase after them or they do not understand what is going on, overall it is pretty good."
"I do not have any current pain points that I would like them to fix, although we did have one issue when an update stopped the phone-home solution, however they fixed that via support."
"In one instance, a single PowerStore array provided only 3 to 4 GBPS, which was not satisfactory."
"I would say it needs easier or increased compatibility with other storage solutions for easier application, such as Dell's own PowerVault."
"Technical support rates at a seven out of ten, primarily due to response time rather than knowledge."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The price of the Cisco MDS Series is high."
"It's perpetual licensing and maintenance is a recurrent cost."
"Pricing cannot be considered an advantageous trait of the solution since it is expensive. I rate the solution's pricing a three out of ten."
"The solution’s pricing is always too high."
"There's still a cap on the upgrade path, where you can consume all the engines within the frame before you have to go to another frame... Normally, we exceed the IOPS on the frames before we can ever exhaust the storage, so anything they can do to help us avoid stranded storage capacity, capacity that we couldn't get to, would be beneficial."
"The pricing rates at seven out of ten as it is considered overpriced. Entry-level models are reasonably priced, starting around $30,000 for a base model with 6 drives. However, upgrades become costly - adding 6 additional drives can cost another $30,000."
"The price is high compared to the Tunisian market."
"Dell PowerStore charges for the hardware warranty every three years. The price will depend on the storage model or how much hardware it has."
"Dell PowerStore is not a cheap solution."
"With compression, we were able to have a solution within our company's budget. We include a clause in the contract with Dell that states if the compression ratio is not met, we will adjust the workload accordingly."
"Dell PowerStore is more expensive than Dell EMC Unity All Flash. Dell PowerStore's performance metrics were way higher than what Dell EMC Unity All Flash offered."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
15%
Government
13%
Computer Software Company
11%
Healthcare Company
8%
Computer Software Company
12%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Comms Service Provider
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business5
Large Enterprise6
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business55
Midsize Enterprise34
Large Enterprise87
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cisco MDS Series?
The pricing could be improved as the solution is very expensive. I am on a yearly payment basis.
What needs improvement with Cisco MDS Series?
I do not have a central management software to manage these products due to the licensing cost. It would be beneficial to have central management software for easier handling.
What is your primary use case for Cisco MDS Series?
I am using Cisco MDS in SAN environments for storage connections and server connections.
What do you think about Dell EMC PowerStore? Is it actually a new product?
PowerStore is flexible, scalable, simple, and performant with market-leading economics for a wide range of legacy and next-gen apps. It is only Flash and can support many workloads from today's app...
How does Dell's EMC PowerStore compare with its EMC Unity XT?
Dell EMC PowerStore is a unified storage platform that has the added benefit of being scalable. The automated management of resources feature provides a more simple administration. I found the flex...
What's the difference between DELL EMC Powerstore and Powermax NVMe?
Dell PowerStore is an all-solid-state midrange storage system. It has many internal elements taken from other Dell offerings and integrated into the PowerStoreOS. The installation and setup have a ...
 

Also Known As

Cisco MDS 9100, Cisco MDS 9222i, Cisco MDS 9700
PowerStore
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

National Rugby League
Information Not Available
Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco MDS Series vs. Dell PowerStore and other solutions. Updated: March 2026.
885,264 professionals have used our research since 2012.